Free Brief Tales From The Bench by Henry Cecil Page B

example, I’ve brought one of our menus to show your honour. You’ll see from this that even the most particular customer has a wide and varied choice. In fact, I heartily agree, your honour, with almost everything the plaintiff has said. If we’d treated him as he described, he would have been fully entitled to make the complaints which he has made. The conversations he says he had with me are pure inventions as far as I am concerned.’
    ‘Do you say that he never came to your hotel at all?’ I asked.
    ‘We have indeed got the registration of a Mr Blandish on the day that he said he stayed there,’ said Mr Cutworthy, ‘but either what he says is almost entirely a complete fabrication, or he’s mixed up our hotel with some other hotel at which he stayed on a different occasion.’
    ‘Well,’ I said, ‘this is extremely odd. Mr Benton, I don’t believe your client, when in the witness box, actually identified Mr Cutworthy. Don’t you think he’d better be recalled at once, in case there has been some mistake about it?’
    So Mr Blandish was recalled into the witness box and was asked to look at Mr Cutworthy and say if he was the man whom he’d described as being the manager of the hotel where he stayed on the night in question.
    ‘Yes,’ said Mr Blandish, and then paused. ‘I think so,’ he added.
    ‘You think so?’ I asked.
    ‘Well, your honour,’ said Mr Blandish, ‘I only saw him on one day and that was some little time ago.’
    ‘But your name is in the visitors’ book,’ I said.
    ‘It’s in the visitors’ book of a lot of hotels,’ said Blandish.
    ‘Any in the same neighbourhood?’ I said.
    ‘Quite possibly. But, your honour, I don’t think there is any doubt that this is the man. I must admit, however, I haven’t got a good memory for faces, and I’ve been asked on my oath if I can swear positively that he is the man. Naturally I want to be careful about this.’
    ‘You are quite right to be careful,’ I said, ‘but you described in detail your first entrance to the hotel and what you saw and heard. Have you any doubt about what you’ve told us?’
    ‘None at all, your honour,’ said Blandish.
    ‘Have you any doubt about the position of the hotel?’
    ‘No, your honour.’
    ‘Then,’ I said, ‘the only thing you are not absolutely certain about is whether the gentleman standing in the witness box is the manager of that hotel?’
    ‘That is so, your honour.’
    ‘But,’ I said, ‘he swears that he is.’
    ‘He also swears,’ said Mr Blandish, ‘that the conversations to which I referred didn’t take place. One of us must be wrong. Perhaps there has been a change of managers.’
    I went into that question but it became plain that Mr Cutworthy claimed that he was quite definitely the resident manager of the hotel on the date when Mr Blandish said he’d visited it. Mr Blandish was then asked if he recognised the young lady sitting in the third row of the seats behind counsel.
    ‘Is that the young lady who was in the reception desk and behind the bar?’ asked Mr Carstairs.
    ‘This one seems better-looking, if I may say so,’ said Mr Blandish.
    ‘But,’ I said, ‘do they look about the same?’
    ‘Well,’ said Mr Blandish, ‘this young lady is really very attractive, I don’t think the other was.’
    ‘Perhaps it’s what she did that made her look less attractive?’ I said. ‘In the course of many years I’ve noticed that a woman who looks quite plain when you first look at her, begins to look extremely attractive when she says nice things about you. And to a lesser extent, vice versa.’
    ‘Well, Mr Blandish,’ said Mr Carstairs, ‘is it the same girl, or is it not?’
    ‘I can’t swear one way or the other.’
    ‘Have you more or less doubt about her than you have about Mr Cutworthy?’ I asked.
    ‘More doubt, your honour.’
    ‘Let us be clear,’ said Mr Carstairs, ‘that we are speaking about the same place? Mr Blandish, will you be kind